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Minister Kembo Mohadi

Herald Reporter
The recent re-appointment of commissioners to the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission is invalid as it contravenes requirements of the new Constitution signed into law last year and has since been withdrawn. This was said by the Minister of Home Affairs Kembo Mohadi while giving a ministerial statement on the status of ZACC in the National Assembly on Tuesday.

“When the new Constitution was ushered in last year, the ZACC commissioners were still in office. Later, their term of office expired,” he said. This meant that the new Constitution was the supreme law.

“In reviewing the term of office for the ZACC commissioners, Section 237 of the new Constitution has to be followed. This section sets out the procedures which has to be followed when nominating commissioners.”

Minister Mohadi said the section required that Parliament’s Committee on Standing Rules and Orders advertise the positions and invite the public to make nominations and carry out public interviews and submit a list of nominees to the President for appointment.

He said the re-appointment of the commissioners was done to ensure continuity and not to create a vacuum since the appointment process took long.

The commission was chaired by Mr Denford Chirindo and included Ms Teresa Mugadza, Dr Elita Sakupwanya, Mr Emmanuel Chimwanda, Mr Lakayana Dube, Dr Goodwill Shana and Mr Shepherd Gwasira.
Their terms expired on August 31 last year.

“You will agree with me that the harmonisation of laws with the new Constitution is still going on. Parliament has indicated that it intends to advertise the posts of the commissioners, which I believe ought to have been done when others for the media and human rights commissions were made.”

Under provisions of the old Constitution and the Anti-Corruption Act, terms for the commissioners could be extended while process to appoint a new commission were in progress.

The commission was chaired by Mr Denford Chirindo and included Ms Teresa Mugadza, Dr Elita Sakupwanya, Mr Emmanuel Chimwanda, Mr Lakayana Dube, Dr Goodwill Shana and Mr Shepherd Gwasira.

Their terms expired on August 31 last year.
On recent allegations that the commissioners were still drawing salaries and allowances and hiring cars from CMED despite the fact that their terms had expired, Minister Mohadi said he could not answer on the commission’s operations since it was an independent body that was not under his supervision.

The Committee on Standing Rules and Orders has advertised for nominations for people to sit on various independent commissions that include the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission, the Zimbabwe Gender Commission, the Zimbabwe Media Commission and the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission.